GOREWATCH LIVES! ...

GOREWATCH LIVES! Been a bit since we did this, but both Dave Roberts and Brian Beutler have been liveblogging today's congressional testimony from Al Gore. Meanwhile, I'm confused. First, Joe Kleintells me that based on Gore's global warming proposals, he may be running for president. Then, Grist's David Roberts tells me that, based on on Gore's global warming proposals, he's not running for president.
So uh -- what gives, guys?
Generally speaking, I'm with Roberts. I don't think this shows much political calculation on Gore's part, and I think, for many reasons, Gore isn't running for president. Moreover, if you actually pay attention, he's become so focused on global warming, that it's almost impossible to imagine him widening out enough for a presidential campaign. Take his plan to replace payroll taxes with carbon taxes, which is pretty unwise. Payroll taxes actually, you know, pay for things. But work is fairly inelastic -- people need paychecks -- so taxing it provides a stable funding base. Gore is advocating carbon taxation explicitly because it will reduce carbon consumption. That, of course, will reduce the tax revenues. Then we raise the taxes per unit of carbon, thus reducing use, thus forcing us to raise rates, etc. Of course, Congress won't actually raise rates that much, so this is really just going to begin depriving the government of revenues. It's true that we should reduce carbon emissions, but we can do it without defunding Medicare.
Plus, on the outside like this, Gore's endorsement is becoming more and more valuable. If he enters the race, other candidates will attack the severity and downsides of his global warming proposals. If he stays out, they'll adopt those very same ideas, hoping for his eventual support.
--Ezra Klein